Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that his state designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations. The move follows one made by Texas.
DeSantis said in a social media statement that the designation takes immediate effect. “Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations,” he wrote on X. “Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support.”
According to the order, the Muslim Brotherhood has “developed into a transnational network with a long history of engaging in or supporting violence, including political assassinations and terror attacks on civilians, for the purpose of establishing a world-wide Islamic caliphate and imposing its Islamic system of belief across the globe, including in the United States.”
Addressing CAIR, DeSantis’ order says its members have been “convicted of providing, and conspiring to provide, material support to designated terrorist organizations.”
In November, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) designated the organizations as foreign terrorist groups, stating at the time, “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.”
President Trump also issued an executive order launching the process of designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist entities.
“This order sets in motion a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” the order states. It adds that the United States will “cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters designated as foreign terrorist organizations pursuant to section 3 of this order, deprive those chapters of resources, and thereby end any threat such chapters pose to United States nationals or the national security of the United States.”
